Definitions

The definitions in section 33.1-16-01-01 apply to this chapter unless defined differently below. 1. "Act" means Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended [33 U.S.C. 1251, et seq.]. 2. "Approval authority" means the department. 3. "Best management practices" or "BMPs" means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in 40 CFR 403.5(a)(1) and (b). Best management practices also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage. 4. "Bypass" means the intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion of an industrial user's treatment facility. 5. "Categorical industrial user" means an industrial user that is subject to a categorical pretreatment standard or categorical standard. 6. "Categorical pretreatment standard" or "categorical standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the environmental protection agency in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. section 1317) that apply to a specific category of users and that appear in 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N, parts 405 through 471. 7. "Control authority" means either: a. The publicly owned treatment works, if the publicly owned treatment works which receives the indirect discharge administers an approved pretreatment program in accordance with sections 33.1-16-01.1-06 and 33.1-16-01.1-08; or b. The department, if the publicly owned treatment works which receives the indirect discharge does not administer an approved pretreatment program in accordance with sections 33.1-16-01.1-06 and 33.1-16-01.1-08. 8. "Director" means the department. 9. "Indirect discharge" means the introduction of pollutants into a publicly owned treatment works from any nondomestic source regulated under section 307(b), (c), or (d) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. 10. "Industrial user" or "user" means a source of indirect discharge. 11. "Interference" means an indirect discharge which, alone or in conjunction with any other indirect discharges, both: a. Inhibits or disrupts the publicly owned treatment works processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use, or disposal; and b. Causes a violation of any requirement of the publicly owned treatment works North Dakota pollutant discharge elimination system permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation or prevents sewage sludge use or disposal in compliance with federal or state law or statute. 12. "New source" means: a. Any building, structure, facility, or installation for which construction commenced after the publication of proposed pretreatment standards which will apply to such source after promulgation, from which there is or may be an indirect discharge, provided that: (1) The building, structure, facility, or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; (2) The building, structure, facility, or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the indirect discharge at an existing source; or (3) The production or wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility, or installation is substantially independent of an existing source at the same site. In determining whether these are substantially independent factors, such as the extent to which the new facility is integrated with the existing plant and the extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source, should be considered. b. Construction on a site at which an existing source is located results in a modification rather than a new source if the construction does not create a new building, structure, facility, or installation meeting the criteria of paragraphs 2 and 3 of subdivision a, but otherwise alters, replaces, or adds to existing process or production equipment. c. Construction of a new source as defined under this subsection has commenced if the owner or operator has: (1) Begun, or caused to begin, as part of a continuous onsite construction program: (a) Any placement, assembly, or installation of facilities or equipment; or (b) Significant site preparation work which is necessary for the placement, assembly, or installation of new source facilities or equipment; or (2) Entered into a binding contractual obligation for the purchase of facilities or equipment which are intended to be used in its operation within a reasonable time. Options to purchase or contracts which can be terminated or modified without substantial loss and contracts for feasibility, engineering, and design studies do not constitute a contractual obligation under this subsection. 13. "Passthrough" means a discharge which exits the publicly owned treatment works into waters of the state in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the publicly owned treatment works North Dakota pollutant discharge elimination system permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation. 14. "Pretreatment" means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a publicly owned treatment works. The reduction or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical, or biological processes, process changes or by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR 403.6(d). Appropriate pretreatment technology includes control equipment, such as equalization tanks or facilities, for protection against surges or slug loadings that might interfere with or otherwise be incompatible with the publicly owned treatment works. However, where wastewater from a regulated process is mixed in an equalization facility with unregulated wastewater or with wastewater from another regulated process, the effluent from the equalization facility must meet an adjusted pretreatment limit calculated in accordance with 40 CFR 403.6(e). 15. "Pretreatment requirements" means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user. 16. "Pretreatment standards" means any regulation which applies to industrial users that contains pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the environmental protection agency in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, including prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to section 33.1-16-01.1-02. 17. "Publicly owned treatment works" or "POTW" means a treatment works as defined by section 212 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which is owned by a state or municipality, including any devices or systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or liquid industrial wastes, as well as sewers, pipes, and other conveyances that convey wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works treatment plant. This term also means the municipality that has jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to and the discharges from the treatment works. 18. "Publicly owned treatment works treatment plant" means that portion of the publicly owned treatment works which is designed to provide treatment of municipal sewage and industrial waste. 19. "Severe property damage" means substantial physical damage to property, damage to treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur in the absence of a bypass. Severe property damage does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production. 20. "Significant industrial user" means: a. All industrial users subject to categorical pretreatment standards under sections 33.1-16-01-31 and 33.1-16-01.1-04; b. Any other industrial user that meets at least one of the following criteria: (1) Discharges an average of twenty-five thousand gallons [94,635 liters] per day or more of process wastewater to the publicly owned treatment works, excluding sanitary wastewater, noncontact cooling water, and boiler blowdown wastewater; (2) Contributes a process wastestream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the publicly owned treatment works treatment plant; or (3) Is designated as a significant industrial user by the control authority on the basis that the user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement. c. The control authority may determine that an industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N is a nonsignificant categorical industrial user rather than a significant industrial user on a finding that the industrial user never discharges more than one hundred gallons per day (gpd) of total categorical wastewater (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewater, unless specifically included in the pretreatment standard) and the following conditions are met: (1) The industrial user, prior to the control authority's finding, has consistently complied with all applicable categorical pretreatment standards and requirements; (2) The industrial user annually submits the certification statement required in 40 CFR 403.12(q) together with any additional information necessary to support the certification statement; and (3) The industrial user never discharges any untreated concentrated wastewater. d. Upon a finding that an industrial user which meets the criteria of subdivision b has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the control authority may, at any time, determine that the industrial user is not a significant industrial user. 21. "Upset" means an exceptional incident in which there is unintentional and temporary noncompliance with categorical pretreatment standards because of factors beyond the reasonable control of the industrial user. Upset does not include noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, inadequate or improperly designed treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance, or careless or improper operation. 22. "Water management division director" means the director of the water management division of the regional office of the United States environmental protection agency or this person's delegated representative.